Improvement in shot-charges for measuring shot in charging guns



G. W; vDOBBI N S 4 Shot Pouch.

Patented March 23, 1 838.

N PETERS. maoro umosnw WASHANGTON a c U IT D, STATES PATENT OFFICEO I GEO. W. DOBBIN, on BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN SHOT-CHARGES FOR MEASURING SHOT IN CHARGING GUNS- Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 654, dated March 93, 1838.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. DOBBIN, of the city of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful machine for measuring the load of shot for guns, and for charging guns therewith, by which machine the quantity of the charge is rendered uniform, and the charge is emptied at once into the gun with the greatest expedition and without the loss of a single pellet; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof. reference being had to the drawing which accompanies and makes a part of this specification, V1712 To the mouth of that description of bag which is usually suspended at the right side by a strap passing over the left shoulder, I attach a tube, A, (see figure,) of any convenient size-but, for example, say nine-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and one inch long bent at an obtuse angle, asiu the drawing, (or curved, as is indicated by dotted lines in the same figure,) and joined to the middle of another tube, B, of the same or larger dimensionssay three-fourths of an inch in diameter-and a communication is opened between the two tubes as large as the smaller tube, A, will admit of. The larger tube, B, may be three inches or more in length and closed at the end 0, either permanently or by a cap or plug screwed on or .in said end, and the other end, D, contracted to a size convenient for insertion into the muzzle of a gun. At about the middle of the larger tube, B, and at right angles with the direction in which it is joined by the smaller tube, A, is placed an uprightsay threeeighths of an inch high-in a longitudinal slot in which upright works a lever, the fulcrum being a pin or screw passing through the upright and lever. To one end of this lever is attached a gate or slide which worksin a slot cut transversely in the tube B at such distance from the junction of the tube A with the tube B as to contain in the interval the desired charge of shot. The other end of the lever is kept elevated, and the gate kept thus shut down by a spring, in the manner long known and commonly used upon shot-chargers known by the name of leverchargers.

The operation of the apparatus may be eX- plained thus: The bag or pouch is suspended at the right side by a strap passing in the usual way over the left shoulder, and the bag, with the charger attached, hangs downward. The shot then pass from the bag and fill the tube A and part of the tube B as high as the dotted line E. In loading the gun the mouth D of the charger is insertedinto the muzzle of the gun, and the shot by their own gravity fall into the charger, so as to fill the space between the gate and the opening from the tube B into the tube A as high as the dotted line, the rest passing off into the body of the bag. When the gate, therefore, is raised by pressing the uppere d of the lever, the charge of shot runs intoYher gun without the loss of a single pellet, and

upon the bags falling to the side of the shooter it is instantlyrcady for use again.

The quantity of the charge may be en larged or diminished by increasing the number of slots in the tube B and moving the gate so as to enlarge or diminish the distance between the gate and the tube A.

The tube A may be joined to the bag, either permanently or by a screw or other mode, so that it can be removed in order to fill the bag with shot; but if it be joined permanently, then the end 0 of the tube B should be closed by a screw-cap, when the bag may be filled by removing the cap.

The machine may be made of brass, copper, German silver, or any metal or composition suited to the purpose.

I do not wish to be considered as confining myself by the drawings and description here given to this form of the apparatus, as the same principle of action may be used under various modifications of form and yet remain essentially the same;. but

I claim as my invention and intend to se cure by Letters Patent- 1. The mode of measuring the charge of shot by their own gravity in such way that all except the quantity requisite to constitute the charge shall run off and be separated from the charge. 

